Chaperone Management
SynthesisVR – Chaperones Management The Chaperones Management functionality is getting an update to Environment Profiles (click) The multiple “Experience Types” support is in Synthesis since our first days. W have since extended the billing capabilities and allowed smart involvement of the same set of stations in functionary different activities. In other words – you can run “Room Scale” and “Free Roam” on a same group of PCs and have your billing to act exactly the way you expect it to work. As part of our grown, we are now automating the Chaperones, working once again to solve another piece of involved manual work. How it works In the Windows tray, right mouse click on the SynthesisVR icon and select the “Chaperones Management” option. Click on the “Save” button for each of the experience types. The current chaperones would be saved locally and automatically restored when a new session is started for the specific experience type. This has to be done once for each of your VR stations. If the given experience type is a Free Roam (meaning, multiple stations sharing the same physical space), you have to pick up one of the stations as a master and enable the “Broadcast” option for it. In that case, at the start of the session, not only will the chaperones would be restored on the current PC, but they will be broadcast through the network and automatically applied on all the other PCs involved in the session.
Update SynthesisVR
For those with versions 3.8 or lower Download the latest version found here: http://synthesisvr.com/download/ Download the file that is labeled “Full Version” Once downloaded, install the software over the current version as per this article: When you need to do future updates, please follow the guide below. Otherwise you are up to date. For those that are on version 3.8.1 or later. NOTE: You can still follow the steps above to update, the guide below is a more automated process after the first update using the below method. Refresh your station if you haven’t in a while. Once you do, you should see at least one Content Event ready to install. Click on that button to find the Synthesis VR Update program. Choose the directory you want to install the Updater and then click on Install on the bottom. This will place a shortcut to the program on your desktop. Method 1 Simply launch the program through the desktop shortcut and SynthesisVR will go through and update the Access Point app. Method 2 Go to your VR Stations section in the Administration section: Simple: Advanced: If an update is available for your station will see that you need to update as indicated below: Click on the “Update To x.xx” and you will be taken to the Your Arcade section and see something similar to the following. Note that if you have more stations that need to be update, all stations will be shown: If you don’t want to update a certain station, click on the big red x and it will be removed from this update process. Click on the “Select a Game” drop down and choose “SynthesisVR Updater”. Note that you could also choose “Don’t change he game” instead of the big red x so skip this station. Also another note is that you only need to do this on one Station and it will aggregate to the other stations in the list so this does not need to be done for each station. Once all stations you want update are selected, click on the OK button. At this point, all stations selected will launch the updater and update the Access Point to the latest version. IMPORTANT: Once all stations have been updated (or while they’re update, or even before they’re updated) you will need to update the Server PC. To do that, you can follow the instructions found here: Future Updates Once you’ve updated to the 3.10 and later versions of SynthesisVR, you would be able to update the Access Point automatically using the method above but it will not be necessary to use the Content Events to download as you will have the installer installed (with the exception of if they installer itself needs to be updated.)
Setting up Wake-on-Lan
Wake-on-LAN (sometimes abbreviated WoL) is an industry standard protocol for waking computers up remotely. Wake-on-LAN is dependent on two things: your motherboard and your network card. Your motherboard must be hooked up to an ATX-compatible power supply, as most computers in the past decade or so are. Your Ethernet or wireless card must also support this functionality. Step 1: Enable Wake-on-LAN in your BIOS Please go through your BIOS settings and enable any Wake-on-LAN option you find. As the option varies, if you are unsure how to do that, google your motherboard model together with the “wake on lan” text Step 2: Enable Wake-on-LAN in Windows You’ll also need to enable Wake-on-LAN in your operating system. Here’s how it goes in Windows. Open the Start menu and type “Device Manager”. Open the Device Manager and expand the “Network Adapters” section. Right click on your network card and go to Properties, then click on the Advanced tab. Adjust the ethernet adapter settings: Disable the Fast Start option: Step 3: Use through SynthesisVR Under “Your Arcade” page, click on the PC you want to shut down or wake up. [Windows Logoff] – the currently logged Windows account will be logged off. If you have setup automated Windows Login, your account will be instantly logged back. As a result, you can reload the environment without a full Windows restart. [Shutdown] – the computer will be turned off. [Start PC] – Upon successful Wake-on-LAN setup, the computer will be turned back on from the shutdown state.
Front Defense: Heroes – Arcade Mode
To enable the arcade mode, please install the SynthesisVR Plugin: Administration >> Games & Licensing >> Your Games >> click on Front Defense: Heroes Install the plugin. Start a new session and the game will start in arcade mode. The players have to select the “Quick Start Game” option and they will be joined together. The game support multiple parameters that can be assigned under “Own Station Parameters” for each of the licensed VR stations: session = if not set, the default value is MYARCADENAME arcadepin = 4 digits pin number for accessing the private session. If not set, the default value is 0000 fdh_region = the region for the multiplayer server. 0 = Europe 2 = Asia 6 = West USA (default) 11 = Russia fdh_bar = Used to trigger the HP bar visibility. Accepted values: 0 = off 1 = on (default) fdh_move = Moving method 0 = V-Move (default) 1 = Locomotion fdh_crosshair = Triggers crosshair visibility 0 = off (default) 1 = on fdh_reload = If it’s off, the gun will be ready to fire when the magazine is loaded 0 = off (default) 1 = on fdh_weapons = Enables special weapons (Bazooka, Heavy machinegun) 0 = off (default) 1 = on If you want to use the default value, you don’t have to setup anything beyond installing the plugin.
New Station or Hardware Changes
First Time Installation 1) Use the latest SynthesisVR Installer from svr.li/dl2) Go into your SynthesisVR web administration account and navigate to “Administration >> Arcade Setup >> VR Stations” 3) You will see the PC listed in there with the actual name of your computer.4) Go to the “SynthesisVR Subscriptions” from the image above and Subscribe your newly installed station to the trial or paid plan. Hardware Changes resulting in SynthesisVR not starting properly Make sure SynthesisVR is not running on the VR Station (by stopping the SynthesisVR Windows Service) and go to your VR Stations section (as illustrated on the image from the top of this guide).1) Click on “Edit” 2) Fill the required fields and put the correct MAC address Note: Any : or – characters in the MAC address will be automatically removed upon Save3) Open a Windows file explorer and go to the following directory:%localappdata%\SynthesisVR\app4) Delete the svr3.3 file 5) Start the SynthesisVR service
SynthesisVR Version 3.10 Changelog
What’s new in 3.10: Fixed Bug – Synthesis may refuse to further launch games if the save game directory for a launched title isn’t accessible for writing Changes – improved network negotiation process New – Added “Internal Communication Type” selection New – Added Station status icon under the “Your Arcade” page New – Added Station Shutdown button New – Added “Start PC” button (read more) New – More status icons on the “VR Stations” page The installer will open more ports to the Windows Firewall Behavior – upon starting a session without a pre-selected game, the VR Interface will automatically popup Why do we think this is a big deal? Internal Communication Type You’ll find the new option under “Administration >> click on your arcade name >> Settings tab >> SynthesisVR Internal Communication Mode”. It has 3 states: RWS (RESTful Web Services) – Legacy WebSocket – Performance WebSocket with RWS Fallback – Default For the past 2+ years, RWS is the primary method for communication between the VR Server Mode and the Access Point desktop application. As long as our RWS implementation works pretty stable, the need for consistent communication emerged and so, WebSocket support is now added. Here are a few things that WebSocket does better: Some of the Android based standalone HMDs have a strict firewall in place. If the HMD can’t be reached via RWS, we wont be able to control it via SynthesisVR. With the WebSocket, the connection is initiated from the device out to the VR Server Mode – it does the trick. The RWS communication isn’t suitable for controlling stations outside of your arcade. The WebSocket integration gives this limitation a room to improve. The RWS implementation involves a timeout state that applies when a station is not accessible. If the “WebSocket” option is selected (the one mark for “Performance”), you’ll enjoy faster web commands. With WebSocket, we are able to detect things much faster. Enjoy the new green circle in front of each station on the “Your Arcade” page. It indicates the station is ready to be controlled. WebSocket now took the network negotiation control from the UDP communication (the UDP communication is still available as an automatic fallback option when the VR Server Mode is not present). Our advice is to switch to the “WebSocket – Performance” option, restart the VR Server Mode and Refresh all the stations. Then run few sessions and, if you don’t face any issues, stick with it. The Legacy option shouldn’t be used unless it is absolutely necessary to get rid of the WebSocket support. Speaking about the network negotiation process Not only it got WebSocket support, but it also got a lot of stability improvements. Previously, it was necessary to stop a session before – indeed uncomfortable and we do appreciate all the feedback we have received. With the new version, you will experience much more flawless operations. And while on the networking side of things The installer will open some extra TCP and UDP ports. If you still face any communication issues (like station not starting via the web administration), check the “VR Stations” page. It will hint you if you have a Windows firewall that could be blocking the connection. You can remotely shut down or start the VR stations To be able to remotely start a PC, please make sure it is configured for “Wake on Lan” Enjoy!
Understanding Idle Playback and Troubleshooting
SynthesisVR lets you play promotional videos and game trailers automatically if your gaming station is IDLE. To activate Idle Playback please click the Settings button on your SynthesisVR Access Point App. SynthesisVR automatically downloads the necessary trailers for the games that are installed on that gaming station. Then Enable Idle Playback as shown below: Modifying Idle Playback and Trouble Shooting If you want to modify existing videos or if you want to add videos of your own Click the Tool Icon as shown below: This will bring up the popup shown below: You can go to the default folder as shown above and add your videos or you can create a new folder and have only the videos you would like to be showing. Note: If for some reason you deleted this folder and wanted the videos in the default folder, you can create folder and name it videoCache in the same path as shown above and then Refresh the SynthesisVR Access point. This will download all the trailers associated with the games installed on that PC. Controlling which trailers to play on Idle Playback There could be trailers of games that you might not want to display on your TV or for some reason if you do not want to show a certain trailer of a game or an experience, Please do the following: Login to your SynthesisVR administration Panel *If you have Simple Menu activated On the left menu Click Administration – Your Games – Click on the game you want to exclude from Playback – This will open up the below pop up – Select Yes, please skip it from the Exclude from Idle Playback dropdown. *If you have Advanced Menu activated On the left menu Click Administration – Games & Licensing – Your Games and follow the same steps as mentioned above. Black screen during Idle Playback If you have idle playback enabled and the videos are not playing properly or if you see a black screen with a red bar running on top, this means the appropriate trailers and images have not downloaded properly and certain video files might have gotten corrupted. This could happen for various reasons. To rectify this: Go to the folder where your videos are saved, this could be the default videoCache folder or a folder you have created. Sort the files inside this folder by Size. Permanently delete all the files that are below 2mb in size. Restart SynthesisVR Access Point app
Desktop App not syncing or Starting Issue
Once you start a session on the administration portal and your gaming station does not start there could be a few possibilities to why this did not happen. Please make sure the Server PC and all the gaming stations have the same time and time zone. There have been many cases where the same time zone was setup but it wasn’t the correct time. This link is a nice guide on how to sync time properly: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/synchronize-clock-windows-10-with-internet-atomic-time/ If the time is all synced and the gaming station still does not start when a session has started please make sure all the gaming stations and server are on the same subnetwork/network. Once you have completed the above two steps and the gaming station still does not start, please make sure all your gaming stations are on Private network and the Windows firewall is OFF for this private network. Please see below on how to achieve this: Right Click your network adapter (ethernet or wifi) and click Open Network & Internet Settings Click Change connection properties Change your Network Profile to Private Click Configure firewall and security settings and make sure to TURN OFF the windows firewall for your private network. Restart SynthesisVR server and the desktop app. This should resolve the issue of your gaming stations syncing with the server and starting when you start a session.
KAT I/O Custom Locomotion Settings for non KAT I/O Games
Thanks to the extensive partnership between SynthesisVR and KATVR (read more), you now can adjust your KATVR settings for every game that isn’t yet supported by the KATVR hardware.To do that: Create a Synthesis custom configuration file: %localappdata%\SynthesisVR\app\Resources\katio.json Use JSON format to create a key-value list of game id + KATVR settings: Save the file and click the “Refresh” Synthesis button. Then re-launch the game through Synthesis. In the above example, 2381, 2230, 6522 and 7290 are SynthesisVR game IDs. They are followed by 5 parameters, having the following meaning: parameter 1 – it determines which technical mode will be used for game support. We suggest you using the hook mode, as being the most stable for now. It supports every game and VR headset we have tested. 0 – IS mode 1 – OP mode 2 – Hook mode parameter 2 – does this game support Linear mapping of locomotion 0 – false 1 – true parameter 3 – which device determines the direction of movement in the game 0 – VR headset 1 – hand controller parameter 4 – which controller is used to control locomotion 0 – left 1 – right parameter 5 – which button triggers locomotion in the selected game 0 – Invalid 1 – Touchpad (Touching it) 2 – Touchpad (Pressing it) 3 – Trigger 4 – Grip 5 – Joystick – Windows Mixed Reality 6 – Joystick – Oculus Touch 7 – Joystick – Oculus Click 8 – Thumbstick – Index Touch 9 – Thumbstick – Index Click When you get to a working configuration for a new game, please contribute the settings by emailing them to info@synthesisvr.com.Sharing is caring. Thank you!
Location Based Virtual Reality League (LBVRL)
lbvrleague.com LBVRL is available for all SynthesisVR customers and doesn’t imply any additional SynthesisVR subscriptions or fees. The only condition is to have the specific League game being licensed via the SynthesisVR platform. Setup: In the old interface – go to “Administration >> Global Arcade Settings” In the new interface – go to “Administration” and click on the name of your arcade. Fill your website domain name under the “Domain” field (don’t use http or https). Example: myarcadedomain.com Locate the “GPS Latitude” and “GPS Longitude” settings and set the exact coordinates of your arcade Usage: Start a VR session with an actual customer assigned to it. The customer can be also assigned after the start of the session Play the game End the session